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It has been five years since the Vietnamese government sent about 3,000 riot police into Dong Tam commune, where they shot dead Le Dinh Kinh and beat around 30 other villagers in a long-running dispute over a plot of land 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hanoi.
His widow, Du Thi Thanh, witnessed the Jan. 9, 2020, shooting. Police arrested and beat her that day and she said they still harass her as she fights for justice.
“They criticize my family, considering me a reactionary person,” she told Radio Free Asia. “Wherever I go, they still make things difficult for me.”
The family home still bears evidence of the attack, bullet holes caused by police gunfire. No men live there because Thanh’s sons and grandsons were imprisoned and the house has fallen into a state of disrepair.
“We leave everything as it is and cover up the leaks,” Du Thi Thanh said. “How can we fix it now? The house is so dilapidated.”
Police said three officers were killed during the Dong Tam raid. They say the men fell into a well next to the family home and were burned to death by a gang led by Kinh and Thanh’s sons, Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc.
The two men were sentenced to death for murder and are being held in a police detention center in Hanoi.
Thanh said her sons have serious physical problems because of police beatings and harsh conditions.
“Chuc is paralyzed on one side of his body, and Cong says he can only lie on his stomach, never on his back, because he was beaten so much and has scabies. Every time I see him, he is covered in blood from head to toe,” she said.
Thanh said police asked her to write that she wanted to “visit a murderer” before issuing a visitor’s permit, but she refused.
“I said no one in my family has killed anyone, if you give me the permit then give it, if you don’t then forget it,” she said.
Four other people were convicted of murder with sentences ranging from 12 to 16 years over the incident. Cong’s son, Le Dinh Doanh, was jailed for life for his part in the killings. Nine others were convicted of “resisting a person on official duty” with sentences ranging from three to six years in prison. Eight were released early for “hard work” and “compliance with prison regulations.”
Missing red book
After police killed Kinh, they confiscated many documents from his home, including the red book certifying ownership of the land his house is built on.
Thanh asked the people’s committee of the commune to help get it back. The police contacted her, saying they would return the red book but later refused.
RFA Vietnamese called the People’s Committee of My Duc district to ask whether they could issue a new red book but no one answered. The phone number listed for the district police did not connect.
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Lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who lives in exile in Germany, said Thanh wants to tell the truth, that the police took the red book from her house, but authorities want her to say it was lost, so they can save face.
Police also refused to issue a death certificate for Kinh. Lawyer Dai said in order for the People’s Committee to issue one, the police must confirm the cause of death. They have refused because they still disagree with the family over where Kinh was shot.
Without a death certificate the family have been unable to inherit Kinh’s money and possessions. Kinh’s wife has also been denied a monthly pension of 70% of his monthly salary as a commune official.
Losing face
Dang Dinh Manh, one of many lawyers who defended the 29 people in the Dong Tam case, told RFA the 2020 attack was an act of retaliation for the police losing face three years earlier, when villagers captured 38 riot police officers accusing them of illegally arresting people.
“From a normal land dispute in Dong Tam, the regime turned it into a bloody crackdown that led to the deaths of four people and the death sentence of two people, including an elderly man over 80 years old who was shot in the chest at close range by Lt. Col. Dang Viet Quang, deputy head of the Investigation Police Agency of Hanoi City Police,” he told RFA, speaking from the United States where he fled, fearing arrest.
“The 2020 Dong Tam attack will forever be a story of the crimes committed by the communist regime against its people,” he added, saying responsibility for the attack should be borne by the late Nguyen Phu Trong, then communist party general secretary, and the current general secretary To Lam who was public security minister at the time.
“For the people of Dong Tam and for this nation, the debt of justice stained with the blood of innocent people is still there. The two unjust death sentences still exist. The Dong Tam case has never ended so it can’t be closed .”
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.